"This volume provides a superb examination of Argentine-U.S. relations between the early nineteenth and the early twenty-first century. Throughout this history, U.S. policy toward Argentina was often 'contained' within a zone of suspicion. The book shows how each country misunderstood each other's foreign policy, a case in point being the Falkland/Malvinas War in 1982, and how Argentina was the focus of a major U.S. policy shift when the US chose not to provide aid during the economic crisis of December 2001."
—Dr. Kristin Ruggiero, Professor of History and Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Milwaukee, Wisconsin

"Sheinin's study is particularly strong on the cultural interchange between Argentina and the United States. He draws from his earlier research to provide interesting and detailed coverage of the juxtapositioning of the two countries within the Pan-American movement and of the intricate negotiations surrounding the Argentine nuclear program in the 1970s and 1980s. This thoughtful overview fills a significant remaining gap in the United States and the Americas series."
—Ken Lehman, Hampden-Sydney College

Description
In the first English-language survey of Argentine-U.S. relations to appear in more than a decade, David M. K. Sheinin challenges the accepted view that confrontation has been the characteristic state of affairs between the two countries. Sheinin draws on both Spanish- and English-language sources in the United States, Argentina, Canada, and Great Britain to provide a broad perspective on the two centuries of shared U.S.-Argentine history with fresh focus in particular on cultural ties, nuclear politics in the cold war era, the politics of human rights, and Argentina's exit in 1991 from the nonaligned movement.

From the perspectives of both countries, Sheinin discusses such topics as Pan-Americanism, petroleum, communism and fascism, and foreign debt. Although the general trajectory of the two countries' relationship has been one of cooperative interaction based on generally strong and improving commercial and financial ties, shared strategic interests, and vital cultural contacts, Sheinin also emphasizes episodes of strained ties. These include the Cuban Revolution, the Dirty War of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the Falklands/Malvinas War. In his epilogue, Sheinin examines Argentina's monetary crash of December 2001, when the United States-in a major policy shift-refused to come to Argentina's rescue.

David M. K. Sheinin is a professor of history at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, and a corresponding academic of the Argentine National Academy of History. His books include Searching for Authority as well as four other studies of Argentina, Pan-Americanism, and the Jewish diaspora in Latin America.